Our continuing research on the preparation, characterization, materials properties, and biodegradability of polylactide (PLA)/organically modified layered silicate (OMLS) nanocomposites has yielded results on PLA/montmorillonite nanocomposites. Montmorillonite (mmt) modified with dimethyldioctadecylammonium cation was used as an OMLS for nanocomposite preparation. The internal structure of nano...

A composite gel composed of a water-soluble aromatic polyamide hydrogelator and the nanosheet Laponite®, a synthetic layered silicate, was produced and found to exhibit thixotropic behaviour. Whereas the composite gel contains the gelator at the same concentration as the molecular gel made by the gelator only, the composite gel becomes a softer thixotropic gel compared to the molecular gel made...

Polymer/layered silicate nanocomposites (PLSNCs) offer remarkably improved mechanical and other properties with low inorganic filler loading. The major development in this field has been carried out over the last one and a half decades. However, the authors are far from the goal in terms of understanding the mechanisms of the enhancement effect in the nanocomposites. Continued progress in nanos...

The iron-titanium oxide minerals of three troctolites from the Freetown layered gabbro have been analysed using an electron microprobe. Comparisons of the analyses of the iron-titanium minerals with the data of Buddington and Lindsley (I964) provide temperature and oxygen fugacity information relating to particular magnetite-ilmenite grains. Magnetite-ilmenite grains occurring in different sili...